The State of the World's Refugees 2006 - Chapter 1 Current dynamics of displacement: 'Mixed migration', trafficking and smuggling

State of the World's Refugees, 19 April 2006

The combination of poverty, marginalization and politically induced displacement is critical in explaining the high levels of mixed migration in every part of the world. The phenomenon covers migrant workers uprooted by sudden changes in economic or political conditions in the country where they are working. It also includes internally displaced persons, refugees and other forced migrants moving on after their initial displacement to seek better protection and livelihood opportunities in other countries or regions. The number of international migrants in 2005 has been estimated at about 175 million,42 of which asylum seekers and refugees constitute only a small part. The rapid growth of such migration has been attributed to the advances in communications and transportation brought about by globalization.

Modern migratory patterns make it increasingly difficult to distinguish between the various groups on the move. Population flows are not homogeneous but of a mixed, composite character. The immediate causes of forced displacement may be identified as serious human rights violations or armed conflict. But these causes often overlap with, or may themselves be provoked or aggravated by, economic marginalization and poverty, environmental degradation, population pressure and poor governance.

Asylum seekers and refugees may use the same modes of travel as undocumented migrants and resort to, or be exploited by, smugglers and traffickers. In some cases, refugees may use these channels to leave one country of asylum and move to another to escape insecurity or economic hardship. On the other hand, persons who do not qualify for international protection may resort to claiming asylum in the hope of being allowed to stay abroad.

The motives behind the secondary movement of many forcibly displaced persons and 'voluntary' migrants are numerous, and cannot be easily categorized. For example, initial displacement may lead subsequently to 'secondary' migration or displacement as part of individuals' or households' coping and livelihood strategies. In Afghanistan, for instance, complex transnational patterns of displacement and migration have become an essential feature of coping mechanisms in a harsh and insecure environment, with many families seeking to enhance economic opportunities through the migration of family members.43

One of the most important supports for many refugees and internally displaced persons in protracted displacement crises is money sent to them by family members living abroad. A recent report on Liberian refugees in Ghana notes how, with the assistance they receive from UNHCR dwindling, remittances have proved crucial to their survival.44 Indeed, the importance of remittances should not be underestimated; not only do they sustain many displaced populations, they also support – and thus possibly prevent the displacement of – many communities living in protracted crisis situations.

In Colombia, decades of conflict have forced the movement of millions of people, with many heading from rural to urban areas to seek both protection and better economic opportunities. Once settled in towns and cities, they may be difficult to differentiate from the wider populations of the urban poor.45

Migrant workers may become vulnerable to forced displacement when there are sudden changes in local political or economic conditions, or where they are employed in the informal sector and lack legal status or effective protection from the state in their country of residence. For instance, the situation of Burmese workers in Thailand was particularly insecure following the tsunami in December 2004. In Côte d'Ivoire, where migrant workers constitute 30 per cent of the population, Burkinabe, Guinean and Malian workers within refugee populations have been displaced by the recent conflict, triggering large-scale returns to their countries of origin.46

The poorest and most marginalized people are particularly vulnerable to abduction, forced military recruitment and trafficking. This vulnerability is heightened in situations of displacement and armed conflict, where people are separated from their homes, families, communities and livelihoods.

There is now growing evidence of large-scale trafficking of persons within and between every continent by organized criminal networks. The evidence suggests that such trafficking is highly diverse and varied in terms of routes and destinations. Some of it takes place within countries – as when women and children are forced away from rural areas into domestic work or prostitution in urban centres – and some takes place internationally, across regions and continents.

Children and young women are disproportionately affected by international trafficking, since much of it is linked to the sex industry. Such trafficking is also often associated with severe physical and mental abuse and exploitation. Displaced people are also more vulnerable to trafficking due to their relative poverty and separation from homes, families, communities and livelihoods – with displaced children and women especially at risk.

Although some of the same criminal networks might be involved, the smuggling of migrants and asylum seekers is a separate phenomenon from trafficking. People-smuggling is primarily concerned with enabling individuals to evade controls at borders where legal entry would be difficult or impossible. Although smugglers provide a clandestine service sometimes used by both forced and voluntary migrants, smuggling is not a form of forced migration per se. Many asylum seekers now use smuggling networks to try and enter industrialized countries, since the introduction of visa restrictions and other controls makes it difficult for them to do so any other way. While many succeed, unknown numbers perish as a result of unsafe conditions, such as unseaworthy or overloaded boats.

Some long-standing situations of statelessness have recently ended due to the political will of the states concerned and the assistance of UNHCR and national or local NGOs. Some examples:

In Sri Lanka, 190,000 stateless persons acquired citizenship in 2004 on the basis of the 'Grant of Citizenship to Persons of Indian Origin Act', unanimously approved by Parliament in October 2003. This benefited persons who during British colonial rule were brought from India to work on Sri Lanka's tea and coffee plantations. UNHCR and the Sri Lankan authorities designed an information campaign to ensure that stateless persons could apply for citizenship in a fair and transparent manner, and without long or complicated administrative procedures.

In Ukraine, a new legal framework allowed acquisition of citizenship by the formerly deported Crimean Tatars and their descendants. Between October 2004 and the end of March 2005, more than 2,800 returnees from Uzbekistan were able to acquire Ukrainian citizenship under the favourable provisions of a new citizenship law. The number of Crimean Tatars who still need to obtain Ukrainian citizenship has reached a record low; hundreds of thousands of them were able to acquire citizenship in the last decade.

In The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, amendments to a citizenship law adopted in 2004 allowed long-term residents to regularize their citizenship status. The Ministry of Interior, in cooperation with UNHCR and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, organized a campaign to disseminate information on the procedures for residents to regularize their citizenship status. The campaign included dissemination of brochures and TV spots in the languages of the Albanian and Roma populations considered most at risk of statelessness.

In other areas of the world too there was some progress on issues of statelessness. In Estonia and Latvia, every year more of the large population of permanent residents rendered stateless by the collapse of the Soviet Union apply for naturalization and gain citizenship. In addition, children born to stateless parents are granted Estonian or Latvian nationality through a simple declaration. In the Russian Federation, as well as in most other members of the Commonwealth of Independent States, citizenship legislation and bilateral dual-citizenship treaties are dealing with the consequences of the dissolution of the Soviet Union. One exception: despite many interventions at the federal and local level, the situation of the Meskhetians of Krasnodar has not been settled. Most of the 17,000 members of this community in Russia have not gained citizenship and the majority are being resettled in the United States.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, a new citizenship law enacted in November 2004 provides the legal basis to solve the nationality status of the Banyarwanda population. In December 2003, Ethiopia enacted a new citizenship law which should allow many ethnic Eritreans living in the country to reacquire the nationality they were deprived of in the late 1990s.

Despite these improvements, many protracted situations of statelessness remain, leaving millions of persons disenfranchized and with few rights. Some of these communities are the Biharis in Bangladesh; the Bidoons in Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq and Saudi Arabia; some Kurds in Syria; and the Muslim populations of Myanmar, in particular those residing in or originating from northern Rakhine State. Thailand and many other Asian countries such as Brunei, Cambodia, Malaysia and Viet Nam also host populations with undetermined nationality. All are part of UNHCR's casebook for the coming years.

Notes

42 International Organization for Migration, World Migration Report 2005, p. 13.

43 M. Bhatia, J. Goodhand with H. Atmar, A. Pain and M. Suleman, 'Profits and Poverty: Aid, Livelihoods and Conflict in Afghanistan', in S. Collinson (ed), Power, Livelihoods and Conflict, p. 73.

44 S. Dick, Responding to Protracted Refugee Situations: A Case Study of Liberian Refugees in Ghana, Evaluation and Policy Analysis Unit, UNHCR, July 2002, p. 6.

45 International Organization for Migration, World Migration Report 2005, p. 94.

46 Ibid., p. 37.

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